Listen: Interview with SWATter Who Got an Innocent Man Killed in Wichita
Yesterday, someone interviewed a man claiming to be the SWATter in the Wichita SWATting that killed 28-year-old Andrew Finch. Finch, the father of two young children, was not involved in the argument that precipitated the SWATting, and was shot by police at his front door while unarmed. The appalling interview with the SWATter is here:
I don’t know if the person being interviewed is Tyler Barriss, the suspect who has been arrested in the SWATting. But the interviewer claims to have contacted the interviewee through his Twitter account, on which he claimed responsibility for the SWATting. And the interviewee here sure sounds like the guy from the fake call to police:
The lack of remorse or empathy is infuriating if not surprising.
If you believe his story, he was not involved in the argument that precipitated the SWATting. Two gamers were playing Call of Duty online and got into an argument. One gamer (we’ll call him Gamer #1) gave a fake address to the other gamer (we’ll call him Gamer #2) and challenged Gamer #2 to SWAT him. Gamer #2 then contacted the SWATter and said, basically, some guy gave me an address and thinks he isn’t going to get SWATted. Want to prove him wrong? The SWATter said sure; after all, he SWATs people all the time. Then Gamer #1 contacted the SWATter on Twitter and taunted him, further spurring the SWATter to make the SWATting call.
If this story is to be believed, several other people were involved in this incident, from the police officer who fired the fatal shot, to Gamer #1 who provided the fake address, to Gamer #2 who solicited the SWATting.
But never mind all that. If it’s Barriss, I want him to go down for murder.
Police also need to find and punish the other people involved, if any.
If you’re new to this story, you can read my post about this deadly SWATting here, as well as my own account of having been a SWATting victim in the past. I published the audio of the SWATting call and the body cam footage of the shooting here. I posted about the arrest of the suspect here.
[Cross-posted at RedState and The Jury Talks Back.]
The whole thing makes me ill. I’m old enough to remember dial-up modems and Mosaic and the start of the WWW. Remember all the great predictions of how the Internet was going to connect humanity for some enlightened future?
Yeah.
Good times, good times.
B.A. DuBois (280b96) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:16 pmwhen sleazy Jim Comey leaked confidential information to contrive the appointment of Robert Mueller, that was a form of swatting too
compare here:
and here:
this is a scary country anymore
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:27 pmthis is a scary country anymore
Not if you switch off your toys and go play outside, Mr. Feet.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:44 pmit’s no degrees outside
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:45 pm@4. Freeze frame, Mr. Feet. 80 here.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:49 pmyou know what likes 80 degrees is zika
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:52 pmGet a goddamn coat, youre on the north side and at least got building’s blocking some of the wind.
urbanleftbehind (87ccb0) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:52 pmi walked down to the corner to steal some of those free spanish newspapers for to pack up some glasswares and my whole face went numb and my fingers were hurting even inside my gloves
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:56 pmI like that the guilty party put himself in the noose.
link [YouTube]
“I’ll say this for you, son. You’re the kind of man it’s a pleasure to hang. If all you can talk is guff, go talk it to the devil.”
papertiger (c8116c) — 12/30/2017 @ 2:58 pmrobots and drones could go a long way to helping our not terribly competent police officers manage situations like this without the hair-trigger resort to violence
faster please
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:01 pmYou have a point there, happyfeet. Robots and drones don’t worry about going home at the end of the day to kiss their wives and children. They can wait and get shot at first.
Rev.Hoagie (6bbda7) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:05 pmyes yes it’s a very good point
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:09 pmLOL… https://twitchy.com/brettt-3136/2017/12/30/a-little-late-barack-obama-urged-to-make-public-statement-in-support-of-iranian-protesters/?utm_campaign=twitchywidget
Colonel Haiku (455bcf) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:09 pmWhat’s wrong with giving a phone call to the house, targeted by an anonymous phone call, before falling on them in the middle of the night in riot gear?
Let it be policy. Make it so.
papertiger (c8116c) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:11 pmDon’t be killjoys, happyfeet and papertiger. What’s the point of practicing, practicing, practicing your marksmanship, at the risk of permanent hearing loss, if you never get a chance to put a bullet in a real, live human target and get away with it?
nk (dbc370) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:19 pmConsidering this guy’s history with swatting, this whole situation likely could have been avoided if authorities dealt with the abuse of the 911 system earlier.
Dejectedhead (b10435) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:25 pmcause of how the police have created a reputation for themselves for ultra-violence and poor decision-making, the gun is always lying there loaded and ready for any swatter to pick up and aim wherever they want
if people perceived cops as having good judgment this sort of thing wouldn’t happen
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:31 pmAll well and fine, but where is the explanation from the police on why an innocent and unsuspecting homeowner was shot down in cold blood?
I’m with happyfeet, it’s a pretty scary situation when any random punk can call up a hit squad, bought and paid for with the public’s tax dollars.
TheBas (8d01aa) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:33 pm@18. Considering police in general have heightened their awareness, sensitivities and strategies to avoiding being used as a means to an end in the ‘suicide by cop’ ploy, the actions by authorities in this incident remain suspect.
DCSCA (797bc0) — 12/30/2017 @ 4:03 pmI’m not sure giving a fake address to some crank on the internet is a crime. Aside from him, everyone else is up for severe punishment, including the trigger-happy cop.
Craig Mc (b08cf9) — 12/30/2017 @ 4:05 pmWhich reminds me – did you happen to tell the FBI that I was somehow involved in “SWATing” you? Because it’s clear from some of our later conversations that despite my assistance to you in trying to determine whether Neal Reahauser had done so, you seem to have decided that I was. And then when I got to my bond hearing, with my ribs and internal organs bruised after an actual SWAT team beat me to the ground and arrested me, Agent Allen Lynn claimed on the stand that I had indeed been involved in “SWATing”. Then the FBI never mentioned it again, either in court or on any of the extensive documents that later composed, because of course the discovery in my case spanned the entirety of my communications for years and I’d obviously done no such thing, nor contemplated it, and indeed had done what I could to try to assist you in determining who’d done this to you. Naturally this is going in my upcoming book for FSG, which will be released next year, so if you have something you’d like to tell me about why an FBI agent might have told a judge that I did something that it turned out that I didn’t, but which a certain prosecutor in California had somehow decided that I did indeed do, I’d be very interested in hearing it before my deadline at the end of January.
Barrett L Brown (7ea3e2) — 12/30/2017 @ 4:27 pmSomebody should do society a favor and just crush this guy’s skull like an over-ripe melon.
Paul (7bf2ff) — 12/30/2017 @ 4:53 pmMr. Brown! Hope all is well with you and merry christmas (late)
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/30/2017 @ 4:54 pmWould the LA County DA’s Office be the one to file a charge of murder against the dirtbag who did the swatting?
DN (4c7af4) — 12/30/2017 @ 5:10 pmHow is the conversation between #1 and #2 not proof of a conspiracy?
Indict both of the SOBs.
Herp McDerp (d1842e) — 12/30/2017 @ 5:15 pmBarriss needs to go to prison for a long time. The other two? Ban them from using the Internet for their lifetime.
Kevin M (752a26) — 12/30/2017 @ 5:18 pmMore info here about Barrett and the SWAT:
https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/12/kansas-man-killed-in-swatting-attack/
Kevin M (752a26) — 12/30/2017 @ 5:56 pm^Barriss.
Kevin M (752a26) — 12/30/2017 @ 6:04 pmWhat a jacakalope, of course he was responsible.
narciso (d1f714) — 12/30/2017 @ 6:06 pmThey need a Kobayashi Maru test for policemen to see which ones have the itchy trigger finger.
papertiger (c8116c) — 12/30/2017 @ 6:14 pmBarris has quite a history.
https://www.dailynews.com/2015/10/16/chatsworth-man-accused-of-bomb-threats-at-abc-7-eyewitness-news-studio/
Patricia (5fc097) — 12/30/2017 @ 7:26 pmThey, the “they”, say that LAPD is holding him on a fugitive warrant. Fast work on the part of the Wichita police or the FBI (Wichita called them in), or it could be an outstanding one from his priors. You know how “they” are.
nk (dbc370) — 12/30/2017 @ 9:10 pmListening to the a-hole’s blank affect, moral naivete, and inability to reason, I want to blame the death of religion and the atrocious results of today’s US educators. But knowing nothing about the pr!ck’s background, that’s pure speculation. He admits he’s done it for money, right?
gp (0c542c) — 12/30/2017 @ 11:05 pmI suppose one of his defenses would be “I never thought cops would shoot anybody, not anybody at all, in circumstances like this. I thought they’d just wake the guy up and mess with him or something. Hell, he didn’t even have a dog to shoot.”
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 12/31/2017 @ 3:48 amAnd the prosecution would have to attack that by saying anybody with half a brain should have anticipated the actual result.
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 12/31/2017 @ 3:49 amBecause of history.
Actually, that would be my defense if I were his attorney. There is a right, r-i-g-h-t, to expect the police not to be murderous, trigger-happy psychopaths. And not trigger-happy, psychopathic murderers, either.
nk (dbc370) — 12/31/2017 @ 4:01 amBarrett Brown? Wasnt he a violent felon that was sentenced to prison for threatening law enforcement officials?
EPWJ (4dc563) — 12/31/2017 @ 6:58 amMr. Brown’s a reliable and congenial libertarian voice what got on the wrong side of a very corrupt and sleazy FBI
he’s not one of the bad guys that’s for sure
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/31/2017 @ 7:04 amHf,
Umm, no,…
EPWJ (4dc563) — 12/31/2017 @ 8:15 amDear Mr. Brown, as far as I know exactly zero persons thought you were yourself the swatter.
You had been so worked up against Patrick Frey, however, by the disguised Rauhauser, and had enough sort of mystery internetty reputation, that it would have been natural to see if you had encouraged anyone else to take up that task.
I’m very glad if you had no input at all into any of that.
SarahW (3164f0) — 12/31/2017 @ 8:25 amencouraged or facilitated, I guess I should add. I never understood Rauhauser’s rage against Weiner getting busted for exactly what he was and remained over the intervening years. His disbelief that Weiner could have been so indiscreet as to require trickery to expose him in any literal or figurative way has certainly been proved overgenerous to Weiner. But maybe that’s no what it was about at all.
SarahW (3164f0) — 12/31/2017 @ 8:33 amColonel Haiku (455bcf) — 12/30/2017 @ 3:09 pm
OMG. I guess the problem with being a “patrician” is, sooner or later, one is expected to act like one.
felipe (023cc9) — 12/31/2017 @ 8:54 amnk. w
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 12/31/2017 @ 9:30 amCrap. What is it with this thing?
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 12/31/2017 @ 9:33 amnk. wrt 36. And so the prosecutor would be, will he or nill he, forced to explain that everybody knows, a reasonable person should know, that the cops are a bunch of trigger-happy maniacs and don’t try to fool us that you thought something other than death would result.
Sucks to be that prosecutor.
Too bad they all can’t be confined to GTMO, for all time.
askeptic (8d10f9) — 12/31/2017 @ 11:15 amHere’s a phrase we all or most of us remember:
SarahW (3164f0) — 12/31/2017 @ 11:31 am“within the scope of harm intended.”
that’s true sorta, about the scope of harm
but what gives me pause is when this little feller did his swatting, nobody had ever died from a swatting
not once in all of american history
and inasmuch as this wasn’t his first at-bat maybe his perception of the risk was genuinely skewed, and not just skewed, but reinforced by both a lack of fatal outcomes as well as by the rationalizations he must have done to justify swatting people to himself
i feel awful he went down this road and lost perspective so badly, that there was nobody in his life to say hey you’ve kinda gone off the rails here
cause people haven’t said much about this
but this is a huge game-changer (aside from how it should finally spur a sense of seriousness from our police departments)
other swatters and would-be swatters – they’re all reassessing the risks and the rationales for swatting, and i wouldn’t be surprised to see a dramatic curtailment reflected in the swat incident rate going forward
it’s just dumb luck that it was this swatter and not the uncounted others what had someone get killed
i blame Mr. Robot
god i hate that goddamn show
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/31/2017 @ 11:50 amI am not sure but I believe there has been at least one prior fatality, and if not that, a serious injury, resulting from police response to a swat, within the last ten years.
SarahW (3164f0) — 12/31/2017 @ 2:20 pmInjury for sure; for example, this guy: http://wjla.com/features/7-on-your-side/fbi-says-swatting-is-a-growing-crime-trend-both-locally-and-nationally–115595
Any time deadly force is part of a law enforcement action, injury or death may occur, it’s completely forseeable that police may not only err on the side of their own lives at the expense of others, and that officers who believe a crime is in progress may be more alert to signs of danger.
I see part of police culpability as not handling the call appropriately with the potential for a false report in mind in light of some red flags of swatting.
SarahW (3164f0) — 12/31/2017 @ 2:28 pmyup you’re right here’s at least one
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/31/2017 @ 2:29 pmoops same as yours
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/31/2017 @ 2:31 pmSome FBI agent mentioned heart attacks in a another article from 2013. I always wondered at police brushing these incidents off as pranks as if to take it seriously made them look bad, because officers are at risk, too. The same FBI agent mentioned an officer racing to the scene of a false report getting into a bad wreck. There’s another case in one case a police officer or sheriff (wearing a bulletproof vest, thank goodness,) was shot multiple times in the chest by a homeowner and swatting victim who did not understand why people,were breaking into his house.
SarahW (3164f0) — 12/31/2017 @ 2:45 pmon reflection then i guess what’s different here is it’s on youtube, that guy getting shot
happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/31/2017 @ 3:05 pmSounds like Sarah’s memory:
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/01/dean-weingarten/man-shoots-oklahoma-police-chief-no-charges-filed/
Appeared to have some fake news from UPI too.
BfC (dbd6e8) — 12/31/2017 @ 3:08 pmFrom the Link I posted regarding Sarah’s story–Inside, there was a link to this story:
http://www.kbtx.com/home/headlines/Man-Charged-With-Killing-Burleson-County-Deputy-No-Billed-by-Grand-Jury-243993261.html?device=phone
Growing Pot, no knock dawn raid, SWAT team, warrant based on informant (correct about pot grow, apparently wrong about dog, ready to use weapons, destroy plants–Although, he did and may not ever been charged with the homicide):
In general SWAT raids used for drug busts (“training” I have read before):
BfC (5517e8) — 12/31/2017 @ 5:27 pmhttp://www.spokesman.com/stories/2017/mar/20/marijuana-raids-are-more-deadly-than-the-drug-itse/
Mr. President tweeted sympathy for the deputy killed in Colorado. It would be nice if he also tweeted sympathy for Andrew Finch.
nk (dbc370) — 12/31/2017 @ 5:40 pmBfC
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 1/1/2018 @ 8:59 amHow is somebody in a mobile home supposed to destroy–which is to say completely ruin beyond its utility as evidence–a quantity of drugs sufficient to warrant a warrant?
Do judges ever look at the history of the warrants they sign? If Officer Friendly’s requests for warrants consistently get hammered in court as being based on incorrect information, does a judge know? Care? Keep signing?
Richard,
It is difficult to quickly find information on a “final” adjucation–But some more details on that raid:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/opinions/wp/2014/02/10/some-justice-in-texas-the-raid-on-henry-magee/
In the end, it does not sound much different than general SWATting.
In the same article, another wrong address raid:
Regarding Magee, it was almost police assisted SWATting… The informant was trying to get out of a parole violation. No illegal guns. Just a barking dog.
SWATting is only symptom of a much larger problem. Police can shoot you if you make a move to your waist–No problem. You cannot shoot armed men with guns setting off grenades breaking into your home.
Reduce the use of SWAT to 7% of armed standoffs, hostages. That will reduce the exposure to “dangerous situations” by a factor of 14:1.
BfC (5517e8) — 1/1/2018 @ 9:54 amBut when police shoot another officer, no charges–Just retirement:
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/BART-to-pay-3-1-million-to-family-of-officer-10623596.php
Even the cop that was killed was vary concerned about how BART police conducted their operations:
BfC (5517e8) — 1/1/2018 @ 10:56 amhttp://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/Slain-BART-cop-told-wife-to-sue-if-anything-6299956.php
BfC. Thanks. I guess one question would be if the judge saw the reference that the guy could destroy a dozen six-foot tall marijuana plants if given more than two seconds’ warning. If the judge saw that and still signed, he needs another job. If the cop told him that, the cop needs another job.
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 1/1/2018 @ 3:44 pmBut, this having happened, what would that judge or other judges do with warrant requests from this clown? Rubber stamp them?
Layout warrant causes against evidence found. Charge and convict folks for warrants with false information?
BfC (5517e8) — 1/1/2018 @ 3:54 pmBfC. Not restricted to confidential informants. Cops. Then when a judge signs a warrant which is obviously false, the judge is sanctioned.
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 1/1/2018 @ 4:24 pmEvery warrant request is accompanied by a certification that the cop submitting it has not been sanctioned for submitting fraudulent warrant requests.
If a fraudulent warrant requests results in damage to cops or citizens, there are further sanctions to the submitter, along with a review of the judge’s judgment.
The judges don’t care. They have absolute immunity. The warrants are examined after the fact, in suppression hearings or in lawsuits against the police. Moreover, if judges who sign warrants try to be more than rubber stamps, prosecutors and police complain and the judges are reassigned to a courtroom where they might have to actually think or at least try to stay awake.
nk (dbc370) — 1/1/2018 @ 4:36 pmRichard and NK, that is why I don’t hold much hope for improvement.
I know–(snark)–We can make them process crimes and the federal prosecutors will be on them like a Mueller on Manafort, or a Fitzgerald on Libby.
In reality, I really dislike process crimes. In this case, the police (government) can lie like a rug, but somebody does not repeat the answers the same way half a dozen times, feds are all over them.
I am frankly very surprised anyone would talk to a government agent. Especially the FBI which still does not even record the interviews.
BfC (5517e8) — 1/1/2018 @ 5:33 pmnk. That’s now. I was speaking in the theme that we might be able to make changes.
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 1/1/2018 @ 6:49 pmThe solution is at the bottom. The quality of the detectives who apply for search warrants and the quality of the armed police who execute them. The quality of police officers across the board, for that matter. Tighten recruitment standards. Tighten training graduation standards. Tighten performance standards. Tighten supervision and discipline.
nk (dbc370) — 1/1/2018 @ 6:57 pmnk. Requirements are one thing. Point is, as somebody said, incentivizing bad people to do the right thing. You can’t always presume the straight-arrow stays straight.
But see “Lone Star Planet”.
Richard Aubrey (10ef71) — 1/2/2018 @ 5:11 amThe SWATter waived extradition to Kansas. Maybe because he was told the law favors him more there; maybe for the same reason that defendants plead guilty so they’ll be transferred to prisons — county jails are made purposely unpleasant to get prisoners to want to get out any way they can; maybe because he will always be an idiot.
The victim’s family, though, does not seem propitiated by the scapegoat. They have an attorney and they want the shooter and the police department held accountable. http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/03/us/kansas-police-shooting-swatting/index.html
nk (dbc370) — 1/3/2018 @ 7:48 pm47. happyfeet (28a91b) — 12/31/2017 @ 11:50 am
He thought it was, or treated the probability as, zero.
It wasn’t zero. It was more like 1 in 1,000, or perhaps even 0.05%. (About 400 incidents in the United States every year, according to the FBI, but probably higher) It should maybe be about 4 times that chance of getting wounded.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/opinion/swatting-fbi.html
Not all SWATtings are the same – some kinds of false reports won’t bring out armed police.
While the odds were small they weren’t absolutely zero. And there’d been an example of a police shooting in the news just about then.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/09/us/police-shooting-video-arizona.html
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 1/8/2018 @ 10:14 amIf there have been 2,000 SWATtings since the beginning of 2010, and one death, the tentative probability is 1 in 2000, or 0.05%
Sammy Finkelman (02a146) — 1/8/2018 @ 10:16 am